Being busy is like a badge of honor in our modern Western society. We think that busy = successful, and that if we just work that much harder we will become that much more successful, but the reality is that when we leave ourselves no space, we get stuck. It’s like canning. When you’re canning, you have to leave head room in the jar or else the pressure will become too much and the jar will explode. The same applies … Read more…
When you sit down to work on your business, how are you spending your time and energy? Are you consistently productive or do you, as one of my clients described it, “piddle” for hours on end without much to show for it? It’s really common for coaches to go into their office each morning and stare at the computer for 8 hours because they think that is what they “should” be doing to move their business forward when in fact … Read more…
It’s that time of year again: the second week in November to the first week of January is what I call “excuse time.” During this time of year, you’ll hear people say things like, “It’s the holidays, we’re so busy!” Even though the holidays themselves only take up a few days, people tend to be less responsive and tell you they don’t have time to get together. It’s also a particularly difficult time to start with new clients. You don’t … Read more…
Where do you fall on the Spectrum of Ambiguity? In a past life, I helped develop and teach a consulting QuickStart class at Avanade (which is a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture) where, over a 6-year period, we taught the class to more than 8,000 people. One of the core concepts we discussed in the class was about Ambiguity and the Spectrum of Ambiguity. On one end of this spectrum there are people who are just not okay with … Read more…
Did you know that, according to U.S. News, approximately 80% of New Year’s Resolutions fail by the second week of February? Essentially that means most people have given up on their resolutions already! New Year’s Resolutions just don’t work for most people. There are a lot of reasons why these resolutions don’t lead to long lasting change: Sometimes it’s because our resolutions were motivated by feelings of fear, pride, guilt or shame. Often these come from the “should” place verses … Read more…
At the end of each day, do you often wonder what exactly you accomplished? According to Steven Covey’s Time Management Grid, there is a distinction between urgent and important: Every task, in both your business and personal life, falls into one of these categories: not important and not urgent, not important but urgent, important and urgent, and important but not urgent. “Important but not Urgent”often takes the Backseat Most people spend the majority of their time in every other quadrant … Read more…
